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Published: August 19th 2009
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Gothic church in Cordoba
A photo of this church, once againAfter a tiring 16 hour journey I was in Cordoba. It was nice to be back in the city that I called home here. On the taxi ride back to my apartment, I passed all of the parks and plazas I had visited and the city streets that I had explored. Although traveling around Mendoza was amazing, you can't beat being back in your old stomping grounds. Familiarity sure breeds comfort.
These were the
last two weeks of my trip and after Cordoba I still wanted to see Rosario, in eastern Argentina, and parts of Uruguay before my flight from Buenos Aires to Washington DC on August 3rd. My second stay in Cordoba was not as action-packed as the first, and I was still resting from my whirlwind tour of the Mendoza region. That first weekend back I spent some time with Mica, of course, but also with my friend Hernan, my travel buddy. I went over to his girlfriend's house for lunch and showed him some pictures of the volcanic cones from Parque Payunia. Let's just say he was kicking himself for leaving without seeing it. I also found out at this time that he and his girlfriend have a 4 month old son. He somehow neglected to mention the fact that he had both a girlfriend and a baby. He claimed that I had never asked or that it had simply not come up in conversation. Learn something new everyday!
After a few more days of catching up on sleep, Mica and I went to La Cumbre for the night, another one of the many small towns in the Sierras. We
Some friends I made on the train
They let me sit down and rest for a bit, which was nice decided to take the tourist train, which goes so slowly I probably would have been faster walking. A train and a bus to La Cumbre took us five hours, while a direct bus there would have only taken half the time. We left on a Thursday morning and were quickly surprised to find out the remaining tickets were standing room only. Apparently all the school students were on vacation so the train was packed with families. This slight inconvenience had us standing in the train for three hours as it rambled along, save for a little bit at the end when a few nice kids gave us their seats to rest our weary bones. Although the scenery on the trip was not all that spectacular, it was a nice change from taking the bus. After arriving in the town of Cosquin, we caught a two hour bus ride to La Cumbre. The bus was so full we had to stand again, but it was only a little while until two seats opened up. Lucky for us because someone else standing in the aisle had started to throw up. Great.
By the time we got to La Cumbre it was
late afternoon, which did not leave us a lot of time for exploring. Mica already had to be back the next morning to go to work. We walked around the town for a bit and then hiked up to the Cristo Redentor statue (similar to the one in Rio de Janiero but much smaller) for a beautiful view of the valley. That night we went out to dinner where I had yet another steak. That weekend I hung out with my roommate Georgina. I had finally become Argentinized (I made it up) by buying a mate setup. Mate is a loose-leaf tea that people drink here in Argentina and in Uruguay, and it is a national pastime. You fill the gourd with the leaves almost to the top and warm water and then drink it through a special metal straw (bombilla) that filters the water through. It is a communal drink, and after you drink all the water in the gourd you refill it and pass it to the next person (it looks
like this). People take their mate gourds and their thermoses with them everywhere. I even saw someone carrying their mate up to the Cristo Redentor statute in La
Cumbre, a thirty minute hike uphill. Now that's dedication. So Georgina and I went to a local park with my mate setup. We sat there and drank mate for about two hours. Just another typical afternoon in Argentina.
That night I went out with Mica and her friends to a nightclub to celebrate her friend's birthday. When we arrived it was 8 other girls and I. Cordoba is known for having a ratio of having 1 man for every 7 women, so I was just about in that ratio. Hey, I'm not complaining. After dancing for awhile, there was a brief fashion show where models showed off various skiwear (remember, it's winter down here). Again, not complaining. Several more hours of dancing later and it was 6am, closing time. Mica had to be at work by noon but she clearly didn't seem to mind being out so late. Yep, another typical night in Argentina. After a sleep in the morning which seemed all too brief, Mica came by my apartment with her sister and brother-in-law to take me out. I was fine meeting her parents, but something about meeting her sibling made me a little nervous. They tend to
Meat, it's what's for dinner!
Carlos, Hernan and I at the asado be more judgmental, I guess. Her sister, Emilse, quickly put me at ease though and our conversations ran the gamut from the band U2 to the Argentinean real estate market. The four of us drove out to the town of Villa Carlos Paz and stopped for coffee. It was great to get to know Mica's sister and her brother-in-law, Pablo, all the while realizing that I was getting more and more involved in her life by the minute.
A few days later it was almost time for me to leave Cordoba. My flight home was only five days away and there would be no time to go to Uruguay. Although I was disappointed about it, I had had such a good time hanging out with Mica that I couldn't really complain. Two nights before I left, Hernan invited Mica and I to his house for an asado. There were six of us (Hernan, myself, Mica, Hernan's girlfriend Karina and their baby, and Hernan's co-worker Carlos) and Hernan still decided to grill five kilos of meat (that's about 11 pounds). It was yet another successful asado experience and I once again ate and ate till my stomach hurt. The next
Getting a haircut
Let's just say that how I wanted to get my haircut and how the salon and Mica wanted it done were two totally different things night, my last night in Cordoba, I had dinner with Mica and some of her friends, who by this point were friends of mine as well. I left for Rosario the next morning. It was not an easy farewell, saying goodbye to both Mica and Cordoba, but I only had a few days left and I had to keep moving. So it goes.
I arrived in Rosario in the afternoon and was immediately struck by the beauty of this city of 1 million people. The streets were clean and well-kept and the plazas were stunning. The downtown area was really nice and there was a large pedestrian zone with plenty of shops and cafes. I visited the national flag monument, a huge monstrosity honoring the Argentinean flag. I also walked along the Parana River and watched the locals fishing for trout. Rosario is Che Guevara's birthplace and I walked by the apartment where he grew up. It is not an official tourist spot and people in Argentina are generally wary of even honoring or talking about Che. As it was explained to me, lest others think that they were communists. The next day I visited Independence Park in Rosario
which is several hundred acres big. The park was beautifully designed and I explored its many areas for quite awhile. That evening I took a four-hour bus ride to Buenos Aires. My flight was only 3 days away.
My last time in Buenos Aires I had seen most of the sights but there were still a few places I had missed. The next day, I met two guys from Boston, Max and Matt, in my hostel and we set out to explore the city. After walking along the waterfront and downtown areas for awhile, I suggested we go to Tierra Santa (Holy Land), a religious theme park. I had read about it in my guidebook and it seemed like one of those bizarre cultural phenomenons that would be right up my alley. Max and Matt didn't need much convincing so we took a taxi to the park. After the taxi dropped us off far from the park and getting lost for an hour, we finally made it. My guidebook wasn't kidding. This place was truly bizarre. It was like going to an amusement park but instead of rollercoasters and cotton candy, there were scenes from the Bible. You could
say that the Bible was being exploited for serious commercial gain. The theme park had plaster statues of many scenes from the Bible, and other recreations such as the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Although religion is a touchy subject, I still was in disbelief at how ridiculous the whole thing was. A scene depicting the parting of the Red Sea? Jesus and his disciples? Davis versus Goliath? Check, check and check. Most bizarre though were the four different "shows" that the park featured: the Creation, the Last Supper, the Nativity and the Resurrection. Every twenty minutes, these scenes were recreated in small theaters over and over! The Creation was a depiction of the book of Genesis, complete with mechanical wildlife and an Adam and Eve. While a narrator described the scene, elephants and tigers and giraffes appeared, with sound effects, and began moving around the stage. It looked pretty impressive. The Last Supper scene had Jesus and his disciples around the table, and each of the figures moved individually as the narrator described the story. By far the most unbelievable scene was the Resurrection (see video below). It was endlessly entertaining, but in a way didn't seem pious. With horn
music blaring in the background, the 20 foot statue of Jesus slowly rose up out of the ground. The figure's arms even moved up and down and Jesus tilted his head back, and looked to the heavens. Awesome, but strange.
That night I got together with Guadalupe (whom you may remember I met in Mendoza) at a friend's house for an asado. After that I went to a house party of a friend of Georgina's until late. They were all of course curious to meet the gringo who had somehow ended up at an apartment in Buenos Aires. By the time I got back to the hostel it was 6am, yet
another typical night. After waking up late the next day I went to an arts and crafts market with Guadalupe and her friend about an hour away. There was food and dancing and music, but my main goal was to buy some gifts for family back home; the market did not disappoint.
The next day was my last day in Argentina (commence tears). I wanted to revisit some of the famous places in Buenos Aires so I took a lot of taxis to maximize my time. I
visited Puerto Madero along the water, the Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada (Pink House) where the President lives, and La Boca, an interesting neighborhood with buildings painted in bright colors of green, red and yellow. I also visited a small Che Guevara museum in the ethnically diverse neighborhood of Once ("eleven"). It was really more of a junk shop, but the owner had a few Che artifacts to show me and talked to me about Che for almost an hour. I thought I would never get out of there.
Following my last steak dinner in the afternoon, it was time to head to the airport for my flight home. Although my departure was bittersweet, by this point I was so mentally and physically exhausted that I was ready to sleep and hibernate for awhile. Argentina had demanded a lot of me, physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally, but I had demanded a lot of her as well. It was a symbiotic relationship that blossomed over my seven weeks there. Argentina, you were great to me. Thanks for everything.
----------------------------------------------------
That night, as the plane took off and roared into the sky, over the din of the engine
I could hear a faint whisper:
Come baaaaack...
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